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Scottish Veterans LX Hockey Club

Home page of the Scottish Veterans LX Hockey Club, for Scottish hockey players over the age of 60. The Club manages the National teams for Over 60s (Grand Masters), Over 65s (Great Grand Masters) and Over 70s (Senior Grand Masters). It fields teams under the Scottish Thistles banner at home and abroad.

Scotland Over 70 Squad for Durham

Coach Murray Paton has selected the following Scotland Senior Grand Masters squad to play against England at Durham on Tuesday 28 February (15:00):

Grand Masters Hockey European Cup

Scotland will host the 2017 Grand Masters Hockey European Cup at Glasgow National Hockey Centre and Clydesdale Hockey Club on 19-27 August 2017. The event will include a Tournament Trophy for non-national teams and, for the first time, the Women's Over 60 European Cup.tournament websiteFacebook page

Gold Medal for the President

Playing for Western Australia Country Over 75 in the 2016 Australian Championships in Adelaide, President Kieran McLernan won a gold medal.

Scottish Thistles "Over 70" Win in Wales

A slightly underage squad of 13 players including a couple of non-nationals in Tony Walker and Bob McCombe playing as Scottish Thistles Over 70s against a similar Welsh squad won the second leg of a double header at Wrexham, North Wales on Wednesday 21 September by 3-0.

In the first match the previous evening, Scottish Thistles drew 0-0; they played a lot of good, controlled hockey but lacked the ability to put in telling passes to their forwards.

Grand Masters Win Celtic Cup in France

Scotland Grand Masters defeated France 2-0 in the final match of the Celtic Cup held on 9-11 September at Lille Métropole Hockey Club to win the Grand Masters Celtic Cup with a 100% record and clean sheets in all three matches. Scotland Great Grand Masters had earlier defeated France 7-0 to set up the possibility that they could retain the Great Grand Masters Celtic Cup, but Wales kept their nerve, defeating Ireland and relegating Scotland to second place.

Colin Tucker (GGM) attacks against Ireland

Both Scotland teams had won their opening matches on Friday 9 September. Scotland Great Grand Masters beat Ireland 1-0 in the afternoon, followed by a resounding 8-0 win over Wales by Scotland Grand Masters. In the second day of the tournament, Scotland Grand Masters continued their winning ways with a 2-0 win against Ireland, but the Great Grand Masters side suffered their first reverse, going down 2-0 to eventual winners Wales.

2017 WGMA European Cup in Glasgow

Scotland will host the WGMA European Cup at Glasgow Green on 21-29 August 2017.

Scottish Thistles in Swansea

Scottish Thistles once more took part in the annual Dragons Hockey Festival in Swansea. Though they came back with only a point, they acquitted themselves well against strong opposition. report by Tim Lorimer

Grand Masters & Senior Grand Masters Second in Home Internationals

In the 2016 Home International tournament at Southgate, London on 1-3 July 2016, Ireland joined the Over 65 tournament for the first time and there was an inaugural Over 70 competition involving England, Scotland and Wales.

Scotland Grand Masters (Over 60) put in an outstanding performance, giving tournament winners England a run for their money and seeing off both Ireland and Wales with comprehensive victories to finish in second place.

One remarkable feature of Scotland's final Grand Masters match against Wales was a pair of yellow cards issued to father and son: Scotland player Glenn Paton and his son, Scotland coach Murray Paton. The statisticians are scouring the record books to see if this has ever happened before.

Scotland Great Grand Masters (Over 65) will count the cost of lack of striking power which left them in fourth place in their competition.

Scotland Senior Grand Masters (Over 70) squeezed through into second place in the inaugural competition after a 2-2 draw with Wales left them depending on the score in the final match of the whole tournament between England and Wales. In a nail biting finish, England scored a fourth goal in the last seconds of that match to relegate Wales to third place on goals scored, Scotland having finished level with the Welsh on points, goal difference and the result of the match between the two sides.

Pistons too Strong for Thistles

In a pre-tournament match played at Southgate on Thursday 30 June, Scottish Thistles went down 8-0 to Pistons. The Thistles side, composed of a mixture of Scotland Over 65, Scotland Over 70 and unqualified members, were much older than their opponents and that, coupled with a reluctance to expend too much energy in advance of the Home Internationals on the following three days, made this a mismatch. That said, the Pistons keeper pulled off two wonder saves to deny Brian de Mattos in the second half, and the teams retired to the bar in good spirits.

World Cup Penalty Shoot Out Videos

Scotland Grand Masters had to go through a three way penalty shoot out competition with New Zealand and Wales to qualify for the 5-8 places. They did so convincingly, beating both their opponents 3-2. videos

Scottish Thistles 8th in Tilburg

A Scottish Thistles side led by Colin Gallacher finished eighth in the International Superveterans Tournament in Tilburg, Netherlands on 17-19 June 2016. Though they conceded only five goals in their six matches, lack of a cutting edge cost them dear, and their best results were two goalless draws on Saturday 18 June, one against the very strong England LX Red side, winners of the tournament.

Membership

New members (and partners) will be made very welcome and there is room for all standards of players. If you want to continue playing hockey into your sixties and beyond, and to have the chance of playing for your country, check out the information about membership or complete the online application form.

Fixtures 2017

Scotland will travel to Durham to play England in an Over 70 international on Tuesday 28 February 2017 (originally stated in error as Saturday 28 January).

Training in the first three months of 2017 will take place as follows:

Each session will run from 10:00 to 13:00 for Over 60 players. Over 65/70 players will normally train from 13:00-15:00. Coach Murray Paton may choose to run a mixed match involving all players between 12:00 and 13:00 (dates TBA)

Scottish Thistles have been invited to two tournaments in France: the Jacques Lévy Supervétérans Tournament in Lille on 17-19 March and the third Over 60 Veterans Tournament over the 2017 Easter Weekend (15-17 April) at Le Touquet, France.

The 2017 Celtic Cup will be played on 28-30 April in the Republic of Ireland at Garryduff Sports Centre, Cork. It will include an Over 70 competition for the first time.

Scotland Over 70 have been invited to an international tournament for Over 70 and Over 70/75 mixed teams in Hannover, Germany on 3-5 June 2017.

The 2017 Home Internationals will take place at Swansea from 30 June to 2 July. Scotland Grand Masters, Great Grand Masters and Senior Grand Masters will take part.

Scottish Thistles Over 70s have been invited to the Lakes Tournament in Cockermouth on 21-24 July for matches against the England Over 75 squad and a Cumbria Select.

The 2018 World Cup will be held in Barcelona, Spain from 20-30 June 2018.

World Cup - 6th for Scotland Grand Masters

Scotland sent two teams - Grand Masters (Over 60) and Great Grand Masters (Over 65) to the 2016 World Cup in Newcastle, New South Wales on 3-13 May 2016.

It was a very successful 2016 World Cup for Scotland Grand Masters, which showed real improvement under coach Murray Paton, earning a very creditable sixth place in the tournament. As well as improving their place in world hockey, they showed at times that they could compete with the best teams in the world, giving eventual gold medal winners Netherlands a real match in the quarter final which the Dutch admitted afterwards had been their hardest match in the tournament.

They were unfortunate to miss out on fifth place in their final match against South Africa, a game dominated by the Scots who just could not find the way past a resolute South African defence. Still, sixth place was an improvement of three places over their position in the 2014 World Cup and this result will strongly benefit Scotland in future events in terms of seeding.

Scotland's Great Grand Masters fielded a depleted team, the oldest in the competition, and were always up against it against younger opposition. Their best performance was a 1-1 draw against old rivals Wales but they could not improve on the ninth place earned in the 2014 World Cup.

Over 70s go down to Cumbria

George Black in the Papers Again

Three years on from his last appearance in a newspaper article, George Black is once again in the news as his ninetieth birthday approaches. We are virtually certain that he is the oldest player in the UK and his story was in the Herald, Scottish Daily Mail, Scottish Daily Record and Scottish Sun on Wednesday 23 March 2016.

Thistles third in Lille

Alistair Ogilvie scores from the floor v Alliance

Scottish Thistles ended up in third place in the 2016 Jacques Lévy Tournament in Lille on Sunday 13 March after a losing semi final against Supervétérans France A in which they went down 2-0. They went on to contest the 3rd/4th place final against the French B side and seemed to be coasting to victory after turning round at half time 3-0 in the lead. Two goals by the French left them hanging on at the end, finally claiming third place with a 3-2 win. In the pool matches on the Friday and Saturday, they had also ended up in third place in the round robin pool by virtue of two wins and a draw against two losses to the eventual finalists, England LX and Supervétérans France A.report

Over 70s Draw with England

Scotland Senior Grand Masters put on a creditable performance against their English counterparts in the friendly interational at Glasgow Green on Wednesday 2 March 2016, earning a well deserved 0-0 draw.